Monday, June 29, 2009

JFK ACT Oversight Hearings Petition

Petition for JFK Act Oversight Hearings

Getting Congressional oversight hearings on the JFK Act is one thing that can and should be done, and will happen as soon as someone convinces Edolphus Towns (D. N.Y.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, to do his job and hold them.

It's possible JFK Act Oversight Hearings could be held as early as next March, during Sunshine Week, after the President’s Open Government Directives are developed and the FOIA Task Force completes its work, and if enough people request the hearings, a big if.

Getting new, sworn testimony on JFK assassination records issues would be huge, and if they try to answer just some of the outstanding questons related to the disposition of the records it is likely they will hold more than one hearing as the Oversight committee is the "investigative arm" of the House of Representatives.

Officially, "The Congressional Oversight and Reform Committee is the main investigative committee of the House of Representatives. It has jurisdiction to investigate any federal program and any matter with federal policy implications."

Although I thought we had a better chance with Henry Waxman as chairman, he's moved on to another committee, and the new chair of the Oversight Committee, Edolphus Towns, is a reasonable New York Democrat with the Congressional Black Caucus who will give us time to make our pitch and is open to persuasion.

I think we have an excellent chance of convincing him that it's vitally important to hold hearings on the JFK Act, and get the sworn testimony of the Secret Service official who destroyed records AFTER the JFK Act was established by law, and determine who in the Air Force ordered the Andrews log for 11/22/63 thrown in the trash, and what became of the negative of the photo of the swearing in aboard AF1 that disappeared from the vaults NARA?

If the Committee chair and Committee members want to learn the answers to these questions themselves, then we have a better chance of getting them to ask them.

Why is the CIA stonewalling Jeff Morely on the Joannides/DRE records? What happened to the Air Force One radio tapes? Who at the White House Communications Agency was responsible for their now missing records? Why are records that were open in full years ago now being withheld? Are the agencies and departments of government responding to Obama's Executive Orders on FOIA and Open Government? What about the MLK Records of the HSCA?

So many questions, with nobody to ask them and nobody to answer them.

What can you do?

Go to this site and sign the petition, and if you want to learn more about our efforts, help us lobby Congress, and be kept informed of the progress of the petition, you can follow this blog or email me at bkjfk3@yahoo.com and I'll get back to you with special updates and inside information.

http://www.petitiononline.com/JFKACT/petition.html

To: U.S. CongressCongressional Oversight of JFK Act

To: Rep. Edolphus Towns, Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and Rep. William Lacy Clay, Chairman of the Sub-committee on information policy, census and NARA and members of the relevant committee.

In order to regain the public’s confidence in government, which has been in decline since November 1963, Congress passed the JFK Act of 1992, requiring the release of all government records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Since the last time Congress conducted a hearing on the JFK Act (June 4, 1997), neither the House Oversight Committee, nor the responsible subcommittee have held one hearing on this issue, despite the destruction of Secret Service documents, the loss of national security records and the continued withholding of records that have been ordered released to the public.

It is imperative that Congress take some action to ensure that the law is enforced and the work mandated by the JFK Assassination Records Act is completed. Therefore,

We, the undersigned citizens of the United States and the free world, do hereby request the House Oversight Committee do its duty and hold public oversight hearings on the JFK Act.

Sincerely,

William E. Kelly, Jr. et al.......

The day I put this petition on line they were fighting in the streets of Iran and the site was down because of a cyber attack from Iran. After watching those demonstrators being beaten and shot in the street, the government they were fighting was also waging a cyber war that was affecting me - us.

They reported: http://www.petitiononline.com/PetitionOnline provides free online hosting of public petitions for responsible public advocacy, with more than 79 million signatures collected — tens of thousands of active petitions. Starting on Friday, June 12, 2009 around the time of the Iran elections, PetitionOnline was subjected to a form of Internet sabotage known as a massive DDoS attack. Until NTT/Verio Network Operations could devise sufficient active filters to keep the massive attack at bay, this site was inaccessible for most of four days and parts of others. At last notice, the attack was continuing but the filters were holding. Background details are available here and updates are being posted here. We are also posting short updates via Twitter at petitiononline. Thank you for all your support and encouragement, which we really need and especially appeciate during this crisis period.

Join us in the ancient methods of grassroots democracy, combined with thelatest digital networked communications, running live and free 24 hours a day.

Of all the petitions on line, the one I like the best, http://www.petitiononline.com/expeltex/petition.html is to expel Texas from the United States and return it to Mexico, but nobody's signed on.

The right to petition the government is one of the most basic democratic rights, and is one of the weapons we are using to try to get Congress to hold Oversight Hearings on the JFK Act, to get a Special Federal Grand Jury to investigate the assassination of President Kenendy and to obtain proper forensic autopsies of the victims, all things guaranteed in the Constitution and the way our government is supposed to work.

More deep background on Congressional Oversight of JFK Act

As the Final Report of the ARRB says:

Section 12(a) of the JFK Act states that the provisions of the Act...shall continue in effect until such time as the Archivist certifies to the President and the Congress that all assassination records have been made available to the public in accordance with the Act.”

Therefore the JFK Act is a LIVING LAW, one that is still in effect and shall continue and remain in effect until all assassination documents are declassified, released and made available to the public, whenever that day comes, sometime in 2017.

It has been over ten years now since the ARRB completed its work, so it is imperative that Congress take some action now to ensure that the work mandated by the JFK Assassination Records Act is completed.

The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee is responsible for the oversight of the JFK Act, and when hearings are eventually held on the JFK Act, the responsible sub committee will be chaired by Rep. William Lacy Clay (D.Mi) on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, with jurisdiction that includes public information, the Freedom of Information Act, the Presidential Records Act and the National Archives and Records Administration.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP MAKE IT HAPPEN:

If you live in the district of any of these Congressmen, and they represent you, they will pay more attention to your letter, phone call, email or fax, because you are a constituent and represent a potential vote.

If so, please go out of your way and ask your Representative to hold public hearings on the JFK Act and to notify you when they are scheduled before they happen so you can attend, view it on C-SPAN and be kept informed of what happens.

Real Democracy depends on an educated electorate, so stay informed.

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D. 10 NY)House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform U.S. House of Representatives 2157 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 (202-225-5051)